Wallace Smith Broecker was born November 29, 1931, in Chicago.
He received his undergraduate degree in physics at Columbia
College in 1953 and went on to receive his Ph.D. in geology
from Columbia University in 1958. Dr. Broecker joined the
Columbia faculty in 1959 and has remained there to this day
(2004): since 1977 he has held the title of Newberry Professor
of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory.

As a young graduate student at Lamont, Broecker was inspired
by the unrelenting drive of the late Maurice W. Ewing, the
founder and the first director of the Observatory and a recipient
of the first Vetlesen Prize, conferred in 1960. He began his
scientific career with a study of the geological and oceanographic
applications of radioactive carbon-14 – the beginning
of a long path of research along which he has made many pioneering
discoveries that have had a profound impact on our understanding
of the ocean (past, present, and predicted), as well as of
its role in global climate change. His research has been instrumental
in developing the use of a wide range of geochemical tracers
to describe the basic biological, chemical and physical processes
that govern the behavior of carbon dioxide in the oceans,
and its interactions with the atmosphere.

Dr. Broecker and his students employed a number of new approaches
to study the Earth's climate, including the use of radiocarbon
and other isotopes to date marine sediments. His studies provided
the first definitive evidence that variations in the Earth's
orbit around the sun and the resulting changes in insolation
induce the glacial/interglacial climate cycle. Broecker also
proposed the concept of a global oceanic “conveyor belt”
of currents that transports heat around the globe –
and can trigger abrupt shifts in the Earth's climate. He further
identified the importance of changes in North Atlantic deep-water
formation as a leading candidate for the cause of abrupt climate
swings over the last few million years.

Broecker has also played an active role in the environmental
policy debate. He has been a leading voice warning of the
potential danger of increased greenhouse gases in Earth's
atmosphere. He has written articles for the popular press,
testified before Congressional committees and briefed officials
at the highest levels of government in an effort to bring
scientific insights to bear on policy issues.

A prolific researcher, teacher and author, Dr. Broecker has
published over 400 scientific articles and is the author or
coauthor of several textbooks, including Chemical Equilibria
in the Earth (1971), Chemical Oceanography (1974), Tracers
in the Sea (1982), and How To Build a Habitable Planet (1985).
His two most recent books, The Glacial World According to
Wally and Greenhouse Puzzles, were published in 1992 and 1994,
respectively.

In 1979, Broecker was elected to membership in the National
Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of both the American and
European Geophysical Unions. Among the many other honors he
has received in recognition of his creative scientific studies
are: both the Maurice W. Ewing and the Roger Revelle Medals
of the American Geophysical Union, in 1979 and 1995, respectively;
the Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America,
in 1984; the A. G. Huntsman Award of the Bedford Institute
of Oceanography, in 1985; the Alexander Agassiz Medal of the
National Academy of Sciences, in 1986; the V. M. Goldschmidt
Medal of the Geochemical Society, in 1987; the Wollaston Medal
from the Geological Society of London, in 1990; the National
Medal of Science, conferred on him by President Bill Clinton
in 1996; and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement,
in 2002.